Science, Wisdom,
 and the Future

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Presenters

Below is the growing list of participants who will present or have given tentative acceptance.
Their names are added as they are received and bios will be posted as they are made available.
Please check back for regular updates.

Click here for a full list of presenters and their bios
Click here for more information on the Evening Speaker Series with Evening Theater

Wednesday Evening, June 24

7:00 pm
 Conference Contextual Address
Russell Genet  
will set the stage for the conference within the largest possible view of its cosmic scope,
as well as it historical context as the third in the Humanity Participant's Conference series.
 “The Cosmic Context for Science, Wisdom, & the Future” 

Russell Genet is a Research Scholar in Residence at California Polytechnic State University, a
professor of astronomy Cuesta College, Director, Orion Observatory, and author of 21 books, including the inspiration for the conference series:
Humanity; The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants

7:30 pm
The Keynote Presentation
Duane Elgin
will challenge and inspire conference participants by addressing the questions of the conference
through the lens of his latest book due out in April 2009
"The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?"

Duane Elgin has spoken to hundreds of audiences ranging from business executives to spiritual communities.
He brings an engaging approach to his presentations that draws all present into the conversation.
Say reviewers: Duane is "absolutely captivating" and "inspired our deepest thinking." 
For more information please visit his website at www.AwakeningEarth.org


Thursday Evening, June 25

7:00 pm
Barbara Marx Hubbard
will bring her decades of experience as a leader in and definer of the field of Conscious Evolution
together with her
most recent work to present
"A Vision of the Future Equal to our Spiritual, Social and Scientific Potential:
Key Steps Toward It Now"

Barbara Marx Hubbard is the President of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution and author of numerous books including
Conscious Evolution, The Evolutionary Journey, and Revelation: Our Crisis is a Birth 
and producer of the documentary series "Humanity Ascending: A New Way Through Together"
www.BarbaraMarxHubbard.com

*********************

7:45 pm

Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack
authors of
The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos
will present:
"Our Cosmically Pivotal Moment"

Primack, one of the world's leading cosmologists, and  Abrams, a cultural philosopher and writer, use recent advances in astronomy, physics, and cosmology to frame an exciting new way to understand the universe as a whole and our role in it.
http://viewfromthecenter.com/
 

Friday Evening, June 26

7:00 pm
Thomas Lombardo 

 is a Resident Futurist Faculty & Chair of Psychology & Philosophy at Rio Salado College.and
draws on years of interdisciplinary research to present:  
    
  "The Future Evolution of the Human Mind" 

He and his wife Jeanne have established the Center for Future Consciousness in Scottsdale Arizona.  The Center's mission is to guide and facilitate the continual growth of future consciousness through education, dialogue, and collaboration.  His latest books are The Evolution of Future Thought and Contemporary Futurist Thought.
www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com

*********************
7:45 pm

Bob Johansen 
will draw on the Institute for the Future's Ten Year Forecast and his latest book Leaders Make the Future
to present

"Faith in the Future"

Bob Johansen is a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future (IFTF)
and co-author of Upsizing the Individual in the Downsized Organization and GlobalWork
Click here for information on his newly released Leaders Make the Future
http://www.iftf.org/
 

Sunday Afternoon, June 28

4:15 -5:15 pm
Riane Eisler
will share the award-winning work of her latest book on the development of a caring economics
"The Real Wealth of Nations"

Dr. Eisler is sought after speaker at conferences worldwide, and is a consultant to business and government on applications of the partnership model introduced in her work. She is an eminent social scientist, attorney, and author best known for her bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future, now in 23 foreign editions.

http://www.rianeeisler.com/biography.htm


Sunday Evening, June 28

7:15 pm
The Closing Presentation by
Michael Dowd

will draw together the deliberations of the conference and point towards the future
“Evolution and the Global Integrity Crisis”

From crumbling economies to collapsing ecosystems, humanity is experiencing an unprecedented global integrity crisis.
In a richly illustrated presentation, Michael Dowd proposes that the lack of an evolutionary worldview made the current crisis inevitable and that a deep-time view of human nature, values, and social systems provides a clear and inspiring way forward.


Michael Dowd is a renown Evolutionary Evangelist and the author of
Thank God for Evolution

For more information on Thank God for Evolution, Click Here

For more information on the evolutionary mission of Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow please visit their website at www.TheGreatStory.org

Special Presentation Sessions
Click here for more details

Special Presentation Session 3
Sunday, June 28 - 3:15--4:15 pm
Bob Willard
a leading expert on the business value of corporate sustainability strategies
presents by webinar

"How to Lead the Transformation to a More Sustainable Business Model."

based on his latest book,
The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook, due out as an
e-book in May and hardcopy in July, 2009

Bob will draw his work together with the themes of the conference to answer the question: How can the sustainability efforts of both businesses and organizations lead the way
in our quest for a flourishing earth?"  

(This webinar is also an effort to test the possibilities for conference venues that
contribute to more sustainable types of networking, and examine if "walking the walk"
can still produce the types of synergies that face-to-face meetings do.
)
 


Special Presentation Session 1
Thursday, June 25 - 4:30-5:30 pm

Connie Barlow
presents

"River of Life"
An Evolutionary Ritual recreating
"an epic pilgrimage from the present to the past"
and based on Ancestor's Tale
by Richard Dawkins


Presentation Session 2
Friday, June 26 - 4:30-5:30 pm

Barbara Marx Hubbard
& Alice MacDonald

present

"An Evolutionary Communion"
is a participatory, sacred experience of silence,
prayer and Communion as participants
in Conscious Evolution

List of presenters with links to their bios

Click Here for Presenter Bios (posting in progress)
          Click here
for Presenters Instructions
                 

Click on names that are underlined below to see personal bio

 Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack - University of California, Santa Cruz
 Co -Authors of "The View from the Center of the Universe"   
        
"Our Cosmically Pivotal Moment"Thursday Evening Presenters


Connie Barlow -
Evolutionary Evangelist with Michael Dowd & author of several science & children's books on evolution
            In a special presentation Connie will share her "River of Life"  Thursday Special Presentation
            (based on the book "Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins)      

Bob Banner - Editor of HopeDance Magazine and Edible San Luis Obispo
    
  "Transition, Opportunity, Resilience and Celebrating: How can we see and act our way through these
         most interesting times?"  Saturday

Josefina Burgos - California Institute for Integral Studies
        "The Necessary Flow of Wisdom"  Thursday

Dwight Collins - Pres., Collins Family Foundation; Prof. Sustainable Ops Management and Founding Faculty, Presidio School of Management.
        "Looking for Leverage Points for Change Towards Sustainability" Saturday

Michael Dowd - Evolutionary Evangelist with Connie Barlow and author of Thank God For Evolution
       
“The Gospel According to Science: Evolutionary Good News”  Friday   and
        
“Evolution and the Global Integrity Crisis”   Closing Presentation Sunday Evening

Rianne Eisler -Social Scientist, Attorney, and Social Activist - author of the international bestseller
The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future 
       
"The Real Wealth of Nations"     Sunday - Late Afternoon (Part of the Evening Speakers Series)

Duane Elgin - Author of Awakening Earth: Exploring The Evolution Of Human Culture & Consciousness
       
  "Voluntary Simplicity: Cool Lifestyle for a Hot Planet."  Saturday  and
        
"The Living Universe: Where are we? Who are we? Where are we going? 
         Conference Keynote Wednesday Evening

Hunter Francis - Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
       "The Renewal of Spirit in Agriculture: Implications in the Sustainability Movement" Saturday

Gil Friend  - Founder, president & CEO of Natural Logic Inc.
       "Profit on Purpose: Risk, Fiduciary Duty and the Laws of Nature"  Sunday

Gary Gardner - Senior Researcher at Worldwatch Institute
        "Climate Change: A Worsening Predicament and an Urgent Need for Wisdom"  Saturday

Cheryl Genet - Professor of Philosophy, Cuesta College; Director, Orion Institute
          "Adventures in Synergy"  Sunday Evening  (Farewells and Thank-yous)
    
Russell Genet - Professor of Astronomy Cuesta College; Director, Orion Observatory
        “The Cosmic Context for Science, Wisdom, and the Future”
          Conference Contextual Address Wednesday Evening

Linda Gibler -
Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program & Associate Academic Dean at Oblate School of Theology
       
  “The Irony and Necessity of Non-Violent Ideals in a Violent Cosmos”    Friday

John Gowan  - Retired research technician-Entomology; Ecology and Systematics, and Floriculture, at Cornell University
             "A Spacetime Map of the Universe"
  Friday

Louis Herman - Professor of Politics, University of Hawaii
        "Future Primal: A Politics for Evolving Humanity"   (Video available in the Synergy Room)

Peter Hess - Director Faith Project National Center for Science Education
       "Negotiating a human Future: evolution, population and ethics at the end of affordable oil"
        (With Dick McDonald)   Sunday

Barbara Marx Hubbard - Founder of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution
       "A Vision of the Future Equal to our Spiritual, Social and Scientific Potential: Key Steps Toward It Now"
      
Thursday Evening Presenter

Les Ihara - Hawaii State Senator
       “The Intentional Evolution of a Politician: In Pursuit of Personal, Public, and Institutional Integrity” 
        Sunday

Arthur Jackson - Author of The Humanist Chapter of the Future and the Future of Humanism
      "How Humanity’s Future Lies Buried in Our Past"        Thursday

Bob Johansen - Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future
       "Faith in the Future"  
Friday Evening Presenter

Pauline Le Bel - Screenwriter, novelist, songwriter, and playwright
      
"From the Big Bang to the Big Band: How Sound and Song Shape the Cosmos and Human Society”
        Friday

Jeanne Lombardo
-
Educator, poet, writer & editor; Master’s candidate in Interdisciplinary Humanities
      
"Wisdom, Science, and Future Consciousness through the Lens of Utopia"  Thursday

Thomas Lombardo - Resident Futurist Faculty, & Chair of Psychology & Philosophy at Rio Salado College
       "Wisdom, Enlightenment and the Future"  Thursday  and
       "The Future Evolution of the Human Mind" 
Friday Evening Presenter

David Loye - Social Psychologist, Systems-theorist, and Futurist - Founder of the Darwin Project
       "Darwin and the Battle for 21st Century Mind"   Sunday

Heather Mendel - Mystic, artist, writer, and teacher of kabbala
       "Eve, God, and the Quantum Age"   Friday

Keith Mesecher - Singer/Song Writer and Director of The Cosmic All Stars band
        "The Ecstasy of Awakening to Our Place In a Living Universe"  Friday

Alice MacDonald - Adult Catholic Educator and Retired Coordinator of Word and Life Faith Community
       
"Evolving catholics Evolving the World: Love’s Unfolding Mystery"  Friday

Richard "Dick" McDonald - Retired research physicist from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
      
 "Negotiating a human Future: evolution, population and ethics at the end of affordable oil"
          (With Peter Hess)      Sunday

George Mobus - Assoc. Prof. Computing & Software Systems, Institute of Technology, U of Washington
       "The Past and Future Evolution of Sapience"  Thursday

Eve Neuhaus - Educator, Mythological Studies, Author of "Journey to Mythaca"
      
“Ganeshian Synthesis: A Blend of Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science"   Friday

Tom Neuhaus - Assoc. Prof. in Food Science & Technology, Cal Poly, & Co-founder & president of Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, Inc
       "Making Third World Farming Sustainable: the Fair Trade Solution"

William O'Toole - Founder and President of EcoNomics, Inc.
       "Guerrillas, Gorillas, and Missionaries: How Rwandan sustainability binds together bullets and Bibles"
        Saturday

Jack Palmer - Jack - Professor of Psychology, University of Louisiana at Monroe;
       "Power and Restraint: The Question of Human Genetic Engineering"  Thursday

Linda Palmer  – Health and psychology researcher/writer/editor, Jiva Institute
      "The Science of Mystical Wisdom: Ancient Virtues for Current Times"  (Not able to come)

Sheri Ritchlin - California Institute for Integral Studies
       "The Way of Wisdom"  Thursday

Shani Robins - Instructor at Stanford & UC Berkeley, Clinical Psychologist, and founder & director of the Wisdom Therapy Institute
     "Wisdom Therapy:Integrating Western Psychological Science with Eastern Philosophy in Organizations"
      
Thursday

Rob Rutherford - Professor of Animal Science, California State Polytechnic University
      
"Holistic Management: Decision Making for a Sustainable Future"    Saturday

Robert Sachs
- Teacher and author of
The Buddha at War: Peaceful Heart, Courageous Action in Troubled Times
      
  
"Enlightened Glimpses into The Future"   Friday

Richard Trowbridge - Professor of Wisdom Studies; Founder; Transletix, The Flourishing Earth, The Wisdom-Centered Life
       "Wisdom: Theory and Practice" 
Thursday

Kathi Vian  - Director, Ten Year Forecast Program, the Institute for the Future.
       "Superstructuring our Institutions: How We'll Evolve to Support 9 Billion People on the Planet"
      
Saturday

Warren Wolf - Pres. of The Humanist Institute; Retired, VP & Chief Scientist, Science & Technology, Owens Corning
          "Philosophical and Ethical Approaches to Business and Sustainability: A Humanist Perspective." 
Saturday

Paul Wolff
 - Professor Emeritus of Architecture, California State Polytechnic University
       "The Interface between Human Behavior and the Physical Environment -
       Creating the first LEED Certified Synagogue"   Saturday

Victoria Zelin - Senior Vice President and Sustainability Practice Leader at Hudson Gain Corporation
      
  "Attributes that Can Make or Break a Chief Sustainability Officer"   Saturday

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Participant's Bios are presented here in alphabetical order.

  Biography Other Information
Nancy Ellen Abrams is a lawyer, writer, and former Fulbright scholar, with a long-term interest in the history, philosophy, and politics of science. While working on the staff of the U.S. Congress, she co-created a novel method by which government agencies can make wise policy decisions in cases involving scientific uncertainty, and she has consulted on this for the Swedish government, several state governments, and various corporations. Her articles have appeared in journals, magazines, and books. She has also released three albums of her songs and performed in eighteen countries.
Primack and Abrams are co-authors of The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Penguin/Riverhead 2006). See viewfromthecenter.com For a decade, Primack and Abrams have been co-teaching a course at the University of California Santa Cruz called "Cosmology and Culture" from which their book developed. They are married and have a daughter, Samara Bay (samarasworld.com).
http://viewfromthecenter.com/
mediakit/index.html
Connie Barlow is an acclaimed author of popular science books and articles, and developer of THE GREAT STORY website. Connie's most recent book, The Ghosts of Evolution (Basic Books), was Amazon.com's top-recommended science book for several months in 2001. Her previous books, Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science (Copernicus Books), Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life (MIT Press), and From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected Writings in the Life Sciences, all explore the nexus of science, spirit, and meaning. She is founding member and webmaster of Torreya Guardians, an internet community of botanists, naturalists, and others dedicated to ensuring the continuing persistence in the wild of America's most endangered conifer tree: Torreya taxifolia. A Unitarian Universalist, she is a well-known developer of curricula for children's religious education programs. Since 2002, she and her husband (Rev. Michael Dowd) have lived entirely on the road, as "America's evolutionary evangelists."     Back to Top www.TheGreatStory.org
Bob Banner has sat near the feet of numerous teachers (either from far away or up close and personal). His mission is to communicate stories and information (by print, web and by screening films) that may be disturbing but at the same time to light a fire under our butts to move us into more deeper Beingness and deeper and more profound life altering Action. He sees the necessary bridge between Spirit and Action. He publishes HopeDance on the Central Coast (as well as globally online). He recently began the publication of Edible San Luis Obispo which is part of a nationwide community of edible publishers which strengthens the local food movement in each area. He plays ping pong for his immediate access to Joy.
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HopeDance:  www.hopedance.org).

Edible San Luis Obispo (www.ediblesanluisobispo.com)

Josephina Burgos - Born in Santiago, Chile, Josefina Burgos came to reside in the U.S.A. in 1976 with her son and husband. She lived in Washington, D.C., where she passed the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE), became a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and practiced architecture for sixteen years. She became an American citizen in 1986. She then moved to San Francisco, California, where she joined the California Institute of Integral Studies. There she obtained a master of arts degree in philosophy and religion. Burgos is currently completing the dissertation phase of her doctoral studies. In 2003 she published a short story, Thoughts on a Theme by a Seagull, in the Newsletter of the Center for Process Studies (CPS) in Claremont, CA, Process Perspectives, Vol. 26, Number 1, Winter 2002-2003. That same year another of her stories, Adelaide, was accepted by Process Perspectives and made available as a paper to the membership of the CPS.  In 2006 she was selected to give a presentation – Meaning in a Post-Modern Universe -- at the 10th Annual Conference, Exploring the Boundaries of Experience and Self, organized by the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology (CEP) Section of the British Psychological Society, at St. Anne’s College in Oxford, UK .Back to Top  

Dwight Collins  directs the Collins Family Foundation (CFF), which has provided the primary seed funding for this Science, Wisdom, and the Future conference.  He also is CEO of the Collins Foundation Press, which will publish the proceedings of the conference.  Besides co-sponsoring this and the other Humanity Series conferences with Cheryl and Russ Genet, CFF supports nonprofits focused on sustainability and has organized retreats and conferences in sustainable business.  Examples are “Profitable Sustainability” and “Profitable Sustainability: The Future of Business”.  Dwight is a member of the founding faculty of the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco, which offers an MBA integrating sustainability principles throughout its curriculum.  There he teaches Sustainable Operations and Implementation of Sustainable Business Practices.  In 2006, he initiated a highly popular project learning initiative at the school in which students do projects in companies and nonprofits as part of their course work.  This program has become an important component of the school’s pedagogy.  Prior to joining the Presidio faculty, Dwight spent over 20 years in industry.  He was a member of the founding management team of Chesapeake Decision Sciences (later purchased by Aspen Technology), a software and consulting company in NJ.  Chesapeake pioneered the development of software for corporate supply chain optimization in the 1985 – 2000 timeframe.  Dwight earned a BS degree in Engineering Physics, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Operations Research, all from Cornell University.  Back to Top

Collins Family Foundation
www.collinsff.org

Collins Foundation Press
www.CollinsFoundationPress.org

Presidio School of Management
www.presidiomba.org

Colbridge and Company
www.colbridgeandco.com
 

Robert S. Corrington is Professor of Philosophical Theology in the Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University, Madison, NJ.  He is the author of nine books and around eighty articles devoted to unfolding his own philosophy of ecstatic naturalism, which emerged out of dialogue with Euro-American pragmatism (Peirce, James, Dewey, Santayana), with its intense focus on the metaphysical implications of Darwin, and Continental Phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre), which bypasses epistemology (theory of knowledge) to gain a more primal and grounded account of human consciousness and its intentional objects.  His metaphysics of ecstatic naturalism is concerned with exhibiting the utter vastness of nature as that nature manifests its own unconscious potencies and the religious orders of meaning that intersect with the human unconscious. His seventh book, A Semiotic Theory of Theology and Philosophy, (Cambridge University Press, 2000) extends his categorial scheme into the foundational structures of the world and presents a semiotic cosmology. Currently he is working on a larger project for Cambridge University Press as well as other book projects that will further ramify and extend ecstatic naturalism. This involves a continuing exploration of Hinduism, Buddhism, and theosophy as they all intersect with the liberal strains in Western metaphysics and theology.
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Click here to read Corrington's nine specific assertions about naturalism

Website: http://users.drew.edu/~rcorring/

Michael Dowd is the author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World (Viking/Plume), which has been endorsed by 5 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and religious leaders across the spectrum. He and his wife, Connie Barlow, an acclaimed science writer, have spoken to more than a thousand groups over the past 7 years, as America's evolutionary evangelists. At home in both liberal and conservative settings, and uniquely gifted at building bridges between religious and nonreligious people, Michael shares the 14-billion-year epic of evolution in ways that uplift and expand heart, mind, and soul. His passion is showing how an understanding of 'our brain's creation story' as given by evolutionary psychology and neuroscience can inspire each of us to live with greater integrity, and can inspire all of us to work together toward a thriving future for planet Earth and the body of life of which we are part.  Back to Top www.TheGreatStory.org

www.ThankGodforEvolution.com

Riane Eisler was born in Vienna, fled from the Nazis with her parents to Cuba, and later emigrated to the United States. She obtained degrees in sociology and law from the University of California, taught pioneering classes on women and the law at UCLA, and now teaches in the Transformative Leadership Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama and other spiritual leaders. She is co-founder with Nobel Peace laureate Betty Williams of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate. Her ideas have inspired thousands of scholars and social activists. Her pioneering work in human rights expanded the focus of international organizations to include the rights of women and children. Her research on cultural transformation has impacted many fields, including history, economics, psychology, and education. Dr. Eisler is the only woman among 20 great thinkers including Hegel, Adam Smith, Marx, and Toynbee selected for inclusion in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians in recognition of the lasting importance of her work as a cultural historian and evolutionary theorist. She has received many honors, including honorary Ph.D. degrees, and is included in the award-winning book Great Peacemakers, as one of 20 leaders for world peace, along with Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King.   Back to Top Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), www.saiv.net

President of the Center for Partnership Studies, www.partnershipway.org, dedicated to research and education.

Duane Elgin is an internationally recognized author and speaker who, for more than thirty years, been speaking and writing in four major areas: 1) the big picture of humanity’s evolutionary journey at this pivotal time in history, 2) more sustainable and satisfying ways of living, 3) media accountability for an empowered citizenry and society, and 4) the convergence of science with the world’s wisdom traditions and their shared views of a living universe. Duane is the author of three major books: Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity's Future (2000), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (1993 and 1981), and Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (1993). With Joseph Campbell and others he co-authored the book Changing Images of Man (1982). He has worked as a senior social scientist with the think-tank, SRI International where he coauthored numerous studies on the long-range future for government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the President's Science Advisor. He has also worked as a senior staff member of a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission on the American Future. He has an MBA from the Wharton School, an MA in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania, and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy for work in "ecological and spiritual transformation" from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA. Duane was honored in 2006 with the International Goi Peace Awardin recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, a lifestyle that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.”   Back to Top

www.AwakeningEarth.org
Gil Friend is founder, president & CEO of Natural Logic Inc, providing advisory services in strategy, design, operations and information systems that help clients build economic advantage through exceptional environmental performance.  He is a founding board member of the Sustainable Business Alliance, Sustainable Berkeley, and the California Sustainable Business Council and serves on the executive board of OpenEco.org and the advisory boards of CleanFish, WattBot, Green World Campaign, and (past) San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Clean Tech Advisory Council. Friend served in the California Governor’s Office, developing early sustainability policies and programs. He was a founding board member of Internet pioneer Institute for Global Communications, founder and Executive Director of Foundation for the Arts of Peace, and cofounder and co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a leading urban ecology and economic development “think-and-do tank,” where he pioneered the current “green roof” trend more than 35 years ago. Friend lectures widely on business strategy and sustainability issues and writes The New Bottom Line, offering strategic perspectives on business and environment. He was coauthor of Biofuels Development and Soil Productivity (1982), the author of The Truth About Green Business and the forthcoming book Profit on Purpose: Risk, Fiduciary Duty and the Laws of Nature. He holds an M.S. degree in systems ecology from Antioch University, has a black belt in Aikido, and is a seasoned practitioner of “The Natural Step” environmental management system.   Back to Top  

Hunter Francis is co-founder and coordinator of the Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium (SARC) at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo.  The SARC provides education, demonstrations and resources on sustainable food and agricultural systems.  Hunter received his MS in Agriculture (Soil Science specialization) from Cal Poly.  Currently, Hunter is a part-time lecturer in the College of Agriculture at Cal Poly where he co-teaches the Cal Poly Land class. He also serves as co-editor of the 'Applied Biodynamics' newsletter for the Josephine Porter Institute.    Back to Top

www.sarc.calpoly.edu
Gary Gardner is a Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C. He has written on a broad range of sustainability issues, from cropland loss and water scarcity to malnutrition and bicycle use. Gary contributes regularly to Institute publications, including State of the World, Vital Signs, and World Watch magazine. He is the author of the 2006 book Inspiring Progress: Religions' Contributions to Sustainable Development. In addition to his research and writing, Gary has done interviews in both English and Spanish with international media outlets including the BBC, Voice of America, National Public Radio, and the Los Angeles Times. Before joining Worldwatch in 1994, Gary was project manager of the Soviet Nonproliferation Project, a research and training program run by the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. There, he authored Nuclear Nonproliferation: A Primer, which is also published in Spanish and Russian. He has developed training materials for the World Bank and for the Millennium Institute in Arlington, Virginia. Gary holds Master's degrees in Politics from Brandeis University and in Public Administration from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Santa Clara University in California.  Back to Top  
Cheryl L. Genet, Ph. D. earned her doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Science and Theology. As director of the Orion Institute’s Science and Human Meaning program, she focuses her research on scientific paradigms, cosmological stories, interfaith relations, and understanding our emerging global community. She taught at Central Arizona College and more recently at California Polytechnic State University Osher Institute for Life-Long Learning.  Currently she teaches philosophy at Cuesta College, and is the Managing Editor of the Collins Foundation Press. She co-chaired and co-edited two conferences and resulting books in the Humanity Conference and Book Series: Evolution of Religion: Studies Theories, and Critiques and The Evolutionary Epic: Science's Story and Humanity's Response.      Back to Top www.OrionInstitute.org
Russell M. Genet, PhD, is a Research Scholar in Residence at California Polytechnic State University, Professor of Astronomy at Cuesta College, and Director of the Orion Observatory. He is the author of a dozen books and over one hundred scientific papers. He observes eclipsing binary stars and studies cosmic evolution. Russ, who pioneered the world’s first fully robotic observatory (featured in the PBS special The Perfect Stargazer), was the 51st President of the Astronomical Society of the PacificHis latest book, Humanity: The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants, tells the evolutionary story of how we came to be, drawn from the best science of our time, and suggests possible future scenarios.  Back to Top www.OrionObservatory.org
Linda Gibler is a Dominican Sister of Houston. She is the Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program and the Associate Academic Dean at Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, TX.  Linda is also Adjunct Faculty at Loyola Institute for Ministry,  New Orleans, LA.  Overwhelmed by the first Hubble Deep Field picture, Linda became enchanted with the magnificence of the Universe and intrigued by the image’s significance for a Catholic understanding of God.  In 1999, she began formal study of cosmology with Brain Swimme at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Since her cosmic epiphany, she has earned and MA and a PhD in Philosophy and Religion with an emphasis in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. She also holds a Masters of Arts in Pastoral Studies at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO. She enjoys crafting lectures and workshops on cosmology and ecology. Back to Top  
Peter M. J. Hess - His position as Faith Project Director for the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) in Oakland, California involves outreach to churches and other faith communities to promote the compatibility of evolutionary biology and religious belief. Peter earned his M.A. in philosophy and theology from Oxford University, and his Ph.D. in ecclesiastical history from the Graduate Theological Union. His scholarly work focuses on the interactions between science and religion in the modern world, particularly the impact of theology on the Scientific Revolution (1600-1900) and the response by theologians to discoveries and new paradigms in the developing sciences. His book on Catholicism and Science, co-authored with Paul Allen of Concordia University, will appear in April, 2008 (Greenwood Press); he is also writing on the religious and ethical implications of the rapidly approaching end of affordable oil. Peter has taught theology, philosophy and history since 1980, and currently teaches in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California. A fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR), he is also an active member of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT), the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS), and the Metanexus Institute of Philadelphia. An avid rock climber and volcano mountaineer, Peter and his wife Viviane have two sons, Michael and Robert.   Back to Top
 
John A. Gowan is retired from Cornell University after 25 years working in the biological sciences. He has three grown sons (and 4 grandchildren), and live with my wife Esther in San Luis Obispo and spends his time reading and writing for his website "General Systems, Gravity, Unified Field Theory" on topics ranging from Cosmology and particle physics to Teilhard de Chardin and the Fractal Organization of Nature. He has recently finished an on-line "e-book" with longtime CPSI colleague August "Gus" Jaccaci.  Gowan was educated at Culver Military Academy (Culver, Indiana, 4 yr. military high school), where he did well in English and physics and enjoyed wrestling, football, and crew.  He spent 2 years at U.C. Santa Barbara, majoring in English and 4 years in the U.S. Army, learning Korean at the Army Language School (Monterey, California), and serving as a Korean interpreter in Seoul. Gowan operated a dairy farm (with draft horses) in upstate New York, then finished his education at Cornell, majoring in General Agriculture. Subsequently he worked for the departments of Entomology; Ecology and Systematics; and finally Floriculture, all at Cornell, as a research technician and general laborer.     Back to Top General Systems website (homepage)http://www.webcitation.org/5gdx3DDhN

E-book:
http://www.webcitation.org/5gdwJeEV4

Louis Herman. Professor Herman is a political philosopher and head of the political science program at the University of Hawai`i-West O`ahu Campus. He was born and raised in South Africa, educated at Cambridge, England (medicine and the history and philosophy of science), and was initiated into utopian politics through involvement with the Israeli Kibbutz movement. He came to Hawaii to get some philosophical distance from his origins and complete a PhD in politics. He now returns regularly to his birthplace in South Africa for his work as executive producer with an international team on a feature length documentary film Primal Quest, dealing with the convergence between the ancient shamanic wisdom of the San Bushman, the hunter gatherers of the Kalahari, and the latest scientific insights from evolutionary cosmology. His book manuscript, Future Primal: A Politics Beyond Modernity provides the background research and vision for the film. He has also authored articles and papers on related themes.
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Primal Quest website
http://socrates.uhwo.hawaii.edu/
SocialSci/louisher/LHerman-Quest.html
Barbara Marx Hubbard is President of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution, received her Bachelor Degree from Bryn Mawr College cum laude in Political Science. She took her junior year abroad at the Sorbonne and the Ecole des Sciences Politiques in Paris. She was given a first ever Doctorate in Conscious Evolution by Emerson Theological Institute. Barbara has helped create the field of conscious evolution. She wrote a first evolutionary networking “Center Letter” in 1967-69 to over 1000 people, working with Dr. Jonas Salk, Abraham Maslow, Lancelot Law Whyte and others to ask the question: “What is the next step for the future good?” She founded The Committee for the Future in 1970 in Washington DC., where she co-produced 25 SYNCON conferences for SYNergistic CONvergence. These advanced, multi media, multi-disciplinary events brought diverse people from every field and function together in a wheel shaped environment to seek common goals and match needs with resources in the light of the growing potential of the whole system. She wrote and narrated the Theater for the Future; a multi-media story of creation that places humanity in the story and visualizes what it might be like when everything we know we can do works. Back to Top www.BarbaraMarxHubbard.com
Les Ihara, Jr. is a state senator, who has served 23 years in Hawaii State Legislature. Prior to his 15 years in the senate, Les served 8 years in the house of representatives. He has held senate leadership positions of majority leader, floor leader and policy leader. A delegate to Hawaii's last constitutional convention in 1978, Les was also elected to 3 terms as chair of the Oahu County Democratic Party. Senator Ihara is recognized as a state leader in the areas of collaborative governance, open government, ethics, campaign finance and lobbyist reform, public access, environmental protection, and aging in place. Les has worked diligently over the past 30 years to develop an alternative model of a politician that includes personal, public and institutional integrity, truth-telling, and inter-cultural communications. On the national level, Les has been an author and associate of The Kettering Foundation, board member of the National Issues Forum Institute, and is currently a vice chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Legislative Effectiveness Committee.
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Arthur Jackson has been active in the American Humanist Association (AHA) since 1962.  Hew was the first Humanist officiate certified as an alternative to Ministers, Priests and Rabbis and served as Assistant Director of the American Humanist Association (1965-69).  Jackson authored the Humanist Orientation Manual (1966) and served as Editorial Associate on The Humanist Magazine (1965-69).  He chaired the International Humanist & Ethical Union's Working Party on Humanist Counseling (1968-78) and served as Executive Director of the Humanist Community of San Jose (HCSJ) (1969-76).  Jackson sponsored a humanist group at Soledad State Prison (1970-73) and served on the AHA Board of Directors.  He was the President of the HCSJ (1979-82), Executive Director of the Division of Humanist Certification (1982-89), President of the Humanist Community (2005-09), and a member of the Executive Council, Division of Humanist Certification (1972-82). In addition, he served as editor of Humaist Community News (1979-97) and Editor of The Humanist Dialogue (1989-94) Jackson was appointed a member of the Humanist Society Board in 2008 and assists in certifying Humanist Celebrants, Ministers, and Chaplains.  He is the author of The Humanist Charter of the Future and the Future of Humanism (1982, 1993), and A User's Guide for Modern Humans: How to Live the Good Life, available in an earlier form "Science of Ethics" on line at www.arthurmjackson.com/wpre.html  He holds that there is only one magisteria and that the methods of science apply to every dimension of reality.   Back to Top  www.arthurmjackson.com
Bob Johansen is a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future who has worked for more than 30 years as a forecaster, exploring the human side of new technologies. He has a deep interest in the future of religion and its impact on business, society, and individuals. Bob works mainly with senior corporate executives across a wide range of industries. He has rich experience in presenting IFTF's foresight and then drawing out insights-inputs to strategy-and-action steps. Bob served as IFTF's president and CEO from 1996 to 2004. Still on IFTF's Board and the IFTF Leadership Team, Bob now spends most of his time with IFTF sponsors, writing, public speaking, and facilitating content. Before his role as president, Bob created and led IFTF's program on emerging information technologies-now called the Technology Horizons Program. Since joining the IFTF staff in 1973, he has explored the social and organizational impact of new technologies. One of the first social scientists to study the human and organizational impacts of communications and computing technologies, his focus is primarily three to five years out, going as far as ten years when possible, and occasionally as far as 20 years. A social scientist with an interdisciplinary background, Bob holds a BS degree from the University of Illinois, where he also played varsity basketball, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Bob also has a divinity school degree from what is now called Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, where he studied comparative religions.
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www.itft.org

Bob's Latest book, Leaders Make the Future, is now available at a 40% discount through 800ceoread  Click here for more information

Pauline Le Bel has been a fulltime artist for over 30 years – an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, award-winning novelist, songwriter, playwright, voice teacher, festival organizer and “evolutionary troubadour”. She is an experienced actor/singer who has worked professionally in theatre, film and radio. She was called "a musical instrument linked to a soul" for her dramatic portrayal of chanteuse, Edith Piaf, in a play she co-wrote. Her published/produced writing credits include: a novel, two screenplays (The Song Spinner, a family movie for Showtime), 4 musicals, a radio drama, songs for films, 3 CDs of her own songs, and articles for various publications. Her powerful, earthy voice has been heard in theatres and concert halls across Canada, in the U.S. and the U.K. and her poetic, musical interpretation of the universe story has delighted international audiences. For three years, she was Artistic Director of Voices in the Sound, an arts and nature festival she created and organized, and is the author of a cosmological musical about her home, Bowen Island, Canada. She is part of a growing community working to integrate art, nature, science and spirit to support a radical transformation in human consciousness.  Back to Top www.suncoastarts.com/
paulinelebel.html 
www.suncoastarts.com/paulinelebel.html 
Jeanne Belisle Lombardo is co-founder of the Center For Future Consciousness in Scottsdale Arizona, an educational institute designed to help individuals and organizations increase their understanding of the future and constructively approach its challenges and possibilities. Jeanne is interested in the intersection between the humanities and the sciences, and the role that intellect and emotion plays in shaping our world. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and is currently writing her Master’s thesis in Interdisciplinary Humanities on stasis and dynamism in the evolution of utopian thought. Conversant in several languages, having lived and traveled in numerous countries around the world, she has been a teacher, educational administrator, editor, writer, inter-cultural advisor, and educational consultant. Passionate about language, culture, history and ideas, informed about current events and global issues, and committed to excellence and learning, Jeanne’s present interests include the future of marriage and gender relations, utopian models of ideal future societies, ethics and ethical evolution, biotechnology and human enhancement, the future of education, and humanities and the future.   Back to Top Jeanne firmly believes that "The quality of the future will reflect the future quality of human beings." Explore future consciousness and read Jeanne’s essays in the humanities at www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com
gknee@cox.net

Click here for full bio

Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Future Consciousness in Scottsdale, Arizona and a leading researcher, writer, and speaker on the topic of the future. The author of The Evolution of Future Consciousness and Contemporary Futurist Thought, Dr. Lombardo brings a unique and powerful synthesis of contemporary science, psychology and philosophy to the field of future studies. He is also the Resident Futurist Faculty, as well as the Faculty Chair of Psychology and Philosophy at Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and the University of Minnesota and a graduate fellow of Cornell University. He has served as the Chief Psychologist and Educational Director at John Madden Mental Health Center, the Dean of Forest Institute of Professional Psychology, and the Chair of the Psychology Instructional Council at Maricopa Community Colleges. His first book, The Reciprocity of Perceiver and Environment, is the best selling volume in Lawrence Erlbaum’s Resources in Ecological Psychology and has been translated into Japanese. Dr. Lombardo is an award-winning educator with over thirty years professional experience.      Back to Top  Click here for a full biography
www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com
tlombardo1@cox.net
David Loye is a former Princeton and UCLA School of Medicine faculty
member, internationally known evolutionary systems scientist, and
award-winning author. His presentation "Darwin and the Battle for 21st
Century Mind," will focus on his new trilogy covering the development of
evolution theory and evolutionary activism throughout the entire 20th
century. Revolution and Counter-Revolution, The Battle of the Books, and
Up Against the Paradigm bring to life the 20th century battle between
progressive science and progressive religion against regressive science
and regressive religion for control now of the 21st century mind. Among his
scientific activities, he is a co-founder of the multinational General
Evolution Research Group; a co-founder of The Society for Chaos Theory
in Psychology and the Life Sciences; co-founder with cultural evolution
theorist Riane Eisler, of the Center for Partnership Studies ; and
founder of The Darwin Project, with a Council of more than 50 leading
American, European, and Asian scientists and educators. His study of
moral evolution began in 1971 with the national award-winning book The
Healing of a Nation
, in which he first made the case for a new moral
oriented field of science and global action oriented healing therapy.
Scheduled for publication in 2010 is his sixth book Moral Transformation
Cycle
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Center for Partnership Studies (www.partnershipway.org);

 The Darwin Project www.thedarwinproject.com

Alice MacDonald has served the Catholic Community of Santa Barbara, CA in adult education for the past 28 years. She has participated in various leadership roles in the Word and Life Faith Community, most of those years serving as Co-ordinator and retiring in March of 2008. In 1998 she received her Masters Degree in Theology from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She was also a founding member of the Institute for Adult Spirituality which held two series a year at the Franciscan Renewal Center at Mission Santa Barbara until 2006. Her interest lies in the area of science and spirituality with an emphasis on the evolving Catholic consciousness as expressed primarily through the writings of Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. She and her husband Bill have been married for 43 years and have three adult children.    Back to Top 

 
Richard J. McDonald, Ph.D. is a retired research physicist from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA. USA.  His scientific work included various aspects of experimental atomic and nuclear physics, both basic and applied, along with a stint in neutrino physics.  His physics career brought him into contact with people from many cultures, and he speaks some German and Italian.  His involvement with resource issues started with investments in metals and energy and go back two decades.  He currently earns his living from participations in oil and gas wells and the occasional profit in the stock market.  His B.S. from the University of San Francisco included, besides physics, extensive studies of philosophy and theology, which he applies to his resource interests in both writing and speaking at conferences such as this.  He is currently seeking answers to the “greenness” of various technologies and the accuracy of oil reserves.  Dr. McDonald is married with two grown sons.  Back to Top  Dick McDonald can be reached at dickmcdonald5000@sbcglobal.net.
Heather Mendel - Mystic, artist, writer, and teacher of kabbala, South African born Heather Mendel was trained as a speech and hearing therapist. Fascinated with the relationship of thought to language, her professional life for the past 20 years has focused on words, written and spoken. A calligraphic designer of word-paintings of spiritual wisdom, she also writes a regular column, Spirituality Matters for The Womens' Press. Deeply rooted in the universality of Judaism, she believes a contemporary understanding of ancient Jewish teachings will significantly contribute to the new world paradigm. She is a regular guest speaker at local churches and university campuses. She delivered the keynote address at the first Annual SLO Women's Press Retreat in 2006. Her book, Dancing In The Footsteps of Eve: retrieving the healing gift of the Sacred Feminine for the human family through myth and mysticism is available for pre-order at amazon.com to be released in November. Her previous publication Towards Freedom: a feminist haggada for men and women in the new millennium is also available.  Back to Top  
Keith Mesecher was inspired  more than 3 years ago by Michael Dowd's telling of the sacred story of our evolving universe  and since then has been studying, teaching, and preaching the story of the universe, as we know it from science, and reflecting on our role in its majestic and magnificent unfolding ever since. Keith formed an organization, Cosmos, at his Unitarian Universalist Church in San Diego and offered church services based on the Great Story. He combines visuals from the Hubbell Space Telescope with guided meditations, participatory, joyous singing, and story telling, based on Brian Swimme’s Powers of the Universe.  As a singer/songwriter Keith began to write high-energy songs celebrating the universe and our role in it, getting the congregation on their feet and dancing during Cosmos worship services. Cosmos invited Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow to San Diego and together they staged North America's first Evolutionary Revival. Michael preached and led a guided meditation, and Connie involved attendees in an enacted parable as she taught the Story of the Universe. Keith and his band, The Cosmic All Stars, led the audience in rousing singing to his songs projected on a screen with magnificent photographs by Connie and the Hubbell Space Telescope.  The Cosmic All Stars has released a CD of the songs written for Cosmos and The Evolutionary Revival, and it includes versions with just the band that can be used for live celebrations when the band isn’t present. Back to Top For samples of Keith's music and to order his CD  see

http://thegreatstory.org/songs/cosmic-all-stars.html

George Mobus is an associate professor of Computing and Software Systems at the Institute of Technology at UWT. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1994 from the University of North Texas after years working in industry as a software engineer, engineering and operations manager, and CEO of an embedded systems company in Southern California. Prior to joining the Institute he taught computer science at Western Washington University where he did research on autonomous robotics.  He currently teaches systems software, robotics, embedded systems programming, and the Global Challenges course in the UWT Global Honors Program.  For the last six years Dr. Mobus has been turning his attention to global issues, such as global warming and peak oil, where computational problem solving might be applied.  Currently, his work in global issues problem solving and energy systems is combining in the development of biophysical economics models of energy systems sustainability. He will be taking his sabbatical in the fall, visiting SUNY-ESF to work with Professor Charles Hall and his students modeling the sustain-ability criteria for alternative energy production systems. As something of a nearly full-time avocation, Dr. Mobus is also conducting broad research in the area of the brain and psychological basis of wisdom in a facility he calls ‘sapience’. He is currently working on assembling a body of evidence that suggests sapience is a unique faculty of the human brain and has evolved along with consciousness to produce the human mind.         Back to Top 

On the systems engineering side, I am engaged in two curriculum efforts
and one research effort. The curriculum efforts are for a BA/BS in Systems
Science
(http://faculty.washington.edu/gmobus/
Admin/SystemsScience/
explainingSystemsScience.html)
and an MS in Energy Systems Engineering
(http://faculty.washington.edu/gmobus/
Admin/EnergySystemsEngineering/
MSEnergyEng.html).
Both are meant to provide students with
up-to-date knowledge and skills
needed to meet the social, political,
economic and energy issues that our
world faces.

Eve Baumohl Neuhaus has been interested in cosmology for as long as she can remember. Born in Philadelphia in 1950, she was fortunate to meet Swami Ganeshananda, a Bengali yogi whose life work was synthesizing ancient and modern science, in the 1970’s. Swami Ganeshananda left Eve with the assignment of combining, updating, and publishing his three manuscripts, a treatise on yoga, an extended essay on science and religion, and an unfinished autobiography. The work has taken 30 years: Crea Sadhana: Once and Always will be published by Inner Traditions International later this year. In the interim, Eve worked with gifted children in elementary and middle schools in Ithaca, New York, and San Luis Obispo CA, completed an M.S. in Education with an emphasis in creativity at Elmira College, and an M.A. in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. In 2004, she published a novel, Journey to Mythaca.
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Tom Neuhaus is Co-founder and president of Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, Inc.  An Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, he developed the department’s Culinary Science and Management Concentration, the country’s only chocolate-production course in a university, Cal Poly Chocolates, and he co-taught Cuisine Française en Français, to Modern Languages students with Dr. John Thompson of Modern Languages for six years.  Since the course’s founding in 2000, Tom has taught hundreds of language majors how to cook while speaking only French in lecture and in lab.Tom’s current passion is the international politics of commodity pricing and the evolution of Fair Trade business practices, with the specific goal of using small and medium-size business practices to allocate more of the cocoa value chain to the cocoa farmer.  Tom’s interests have taken him to South America and to West Africa, where he leads trips to cocoa farms, and facilitates donations of tools and other in-kind gifts that will make the West African cocoa farmer more sustainable.  In 2006, Tom established Project Hope and Fairness, a non-profit NGO dedicated to helping West African cocoa farmers.   Back to Top 

Project New Hope and Fairness
www.projecthopeandfairness.org

Click here or a full bio
William O’Toole founded EcoNomics, Inc. in 1977. Mr. O’Toole holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology, specializing in Systems Ecology, from the University of California at San Diego. Mr. O’Toole has been a member of, and has provided advisory services to, numerous local, state and national solid waste and recycling organizations including the California Resource Recovery Association, the National Recycling Coalition, Northern California Resource Recovery Association and Californians Against Waste. As a board member of Californians Against Waste (CAW), Mr. O’Toole was a major architect of the state’s deposit legislation and was instrumental in obtaining passage of California’s precedent setting recycling law Assembly Bill 939 (50% recycling mandate). His firm has provided strategic advice and developed original and groundbreaking recycling and diversion programs to over 100 jurisdictions and many corporations. Mr. O’Toole believes that ecological principals can be applied to human economics systems. The application and further development of applied ecology to government and business is necessary for sustainable global prosperity. He has produced several informational videos on recycling and industrial ecology. His current film project is in production in Rwanda and deals with sustainability, conflict zones, and human resilience. He believes that the only impediment to a sustainable future is a lack of understanding and that education of key decision makers is critical to our world’s future.  Back to Top  
Jack A. Palmer is Professor of Psychology at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where he has taught since 1989. Jack and his wife Linda coauthored a text human evolution, Evolutionary Psychology: The Ultimate Origins of Human Behavior, published by Allyn & Bacon in 2002. Jack primarily teaches Neuropsychology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Positive Psychology. His evolution courses and textbook take the larger “Evolutionary Epic” perspective, which is somewhat rare in psychological science. Jack’s current research focuses on investigations of the effect of rearing experiences (ontogeny) on adult psychological traits; and the neurological substrates of moral reasoning. He has been named “Researcher of the Year” and “Professor of the Year” by his dept. The Palmers are long-time practitioners of the meditative discipline Sant Mat. Their daughter works in television and film production on the West Coast, and their son (now deceased) was a computer programmer and graphic designer.  
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Vita and narrative bio:
About our book, Evolutionary Psychology:
Jiva Institute:
Sant Mat:

 

Linda K. Palmer, is co-author (with Dr. Jack A. Palmer) of Evolutionary Psychology: The Ultimate Origins of Human Behavior. Early in life, Linda made her living as an artist. Later she worked as manager of the Survey Research Institute, University of Georgia, and editor-in-chief of Edition Naam publishing. She has served on numerous non-profit boards, taught psychology at Louisiana universities, and was a therapist in private practice. In 1998, Linda left academia and spent seven years in spiritual centers, studying full-time with renowned mystic, Thakar Singh. She produced over a dozen books from his discourses, including his last work, Live the Life of Soul. Linda currently conducts psychological research with Jack, serves as editor for Jiva Institute, and does freelance editing and writing. Linda and Jack have a daughter who works in television and film production; their son (now deceased) was a computer programmer/graphic designer.  
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Joel R. Primack, a professor of physics at the University of California Santa Cruz, has done foundational research in cosmology. He and his team use some of the world's biggest supercomputers to simulate the evolution of the universe, and they compare the results with observational data. He has recently chaired the Forum on Physics and Society of the American Physical Society, as well as the Committee on Science, Ethics, and Religion of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a coauthor of Advice and Dissent: Scientists in the Political Arena.
Primack and Abrams are co-authors of The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Penguin/Riverhead 2006). See viewfromthecenter.com. For a decade, Primack and Abrams have been co-teaching a course at the University of California Santa Cruz called "Cosmology and Culture" from which their book developed. They are married and have a daughter, Samara Bay (samarasworld.com). 
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http://viewfromthecenter.com/
mediakit/index.html
Sheri Ritchlin recieved her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Integral Studies for her dissertation on "The Return of the Sage: A New Cosmology Meets the Way of Heaven and Earth in the I Ching" under the guidance of Professors Yi Wu, Brian Swimme and Richard Tarnas and further inspired by the work of Thomas Berry. She is the author of One-ing, Dream to Waken and articles published in Parabola Magazine and the Institute of Noetic Sciences Review (Shift). Her current work, Fields of Light: 2012 and the Venus Transit of the Sun focuses on the worldview of Mesoamerican sages and its extension into our own time.    Back to Top  
Shani Robins, Ph.D. pioneered the field of Wisdom TherapyTM in 1998 which integrates western psychological science with eastern philosophy.  He is an instructor at Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley, a licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY18795), and the founder and director of the Wisdom Therapy Institute since 2000. Dr. Robins completed his B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy with honors from UCLA in 1989, his M.A. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Experimental Psychology from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1996, a 2-year National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellowship at U.C. Irvine in 1999, and a second Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2002. He received his license in Clinical Psychology in 2002.  For the last 15 years, Dr. Robins has been teaching both clinical and research Ph.D. courses in Positive Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Lifespan Development, Mindfulness Meditation, Cognitive Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Research and Statistics, and the organizational applications of those topics.  Dr. Robins has published and given numerous clinical workshops, invited talks, scientific conference presentations, and corporate consultations nationally and internationally on Wisdom Therapy, how wisdom can be actively cultivated sooner rather than later, and wisdom’s relationships to emotions, stress reduction, anger management, emotional intelligence, relationships, work place effectiveness, coping, performance, and organizational consulting.     Back to Top www.wisdomtherapy.com 
Rob Rutherford - graduated with a B.S. in Agricultural Education and then completed a M.S. in General Agriculture after being hired into  the Animal Science Department at Cal Poly in 1974.  He currently serves a professor in that department, teaching classes in sheep management, issues in animal agriculture, and holistic management. Additional roles have included managing the sheep operations and serving as the president of both the California Wool Growers Association and the California Sheep Commission. He is a Certified Educator of Holistic Management.
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Robert Sachs is a local author and teacher.  His books include The Buddha at War: Peaceful Heart, Courageous Action in Troubled TimesThe Passionate Buddha: Wisdom on Intimacy and Enduring Love, and The Wisdom of The Buddhist Masters: Common and Uncommon Sense.  He and his wife, Melanie, run Diamond Way Ayurveda, offering treatments and providing trainings in the body-mind techniques of Indian and Tibetan Ayurveda."   Back to Top  

Richard Trowbridge: Richard Hawley Trowbridge, adjunct at 3 colleges. RHT has recently finished the first English translation of Charles de Bovelles’ Liber de Sapiente, (Book of the Sage). He is also concluding “Wisdom: A Guide to the Research”, the most complete review ever undertaken of the empirical research on wisdom, with Shani Robins and Drew Krafcik. For the past five years he has facilitated classes on developing wisdom at learning-in-retirement centers in Rochester, NY. This program, “The Wisdom-Centered Life”, consists of four parts: Learning about wisdom, Exercises for keeping the mind focused on ultimate priorities, developing a wisdom Perspective, and Using situations in our own lives for developing wisdom. This last can be called “The royal road to wisdom.” Wisdom is defined as “Maximal understanding and optimal choices.” Information on this program is available in The Wisdom Companion, an annual training guide and resource on the psychological, philosophical, spiritual writings on wisdom and on its past and present manifestations.     Back to Top

http://wisdomcenteredlife.org

Bob Willard is a leading expert on the business value of corporate sustainability strategies. He has given hundreds of keynote presentations to corporate, government, university, and NGO audiences on the bottom-line benefits of sustainability strategies. He has authored two books, The Sustainability Advantage and The Next Sustainability Wave, and created a DVD of his presentation, The Business Case for Sustainability. His next book, The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook, will be released in spring 2009. He worked 34 years with IBM Canada, is on the faculty of the Sustainable Enterprise Academy, and serves on the advisory board of the Natural Step Canada. He has a PhD in sustainability from the University of Toronto.   Back to Top

E-mail: bobwillard@sympatico.ca

See www.sustainabilityadvantage.com for more information about Bob and his resources for sustainability champions.

Kathi Vian leads the IFTF annual Ten-Year Forecast program that anticipates that most important innovations and disruptions in the economy, society, and environment over the coming decade. Starting with her research on computer-based communications systems in the 1970s, Kathi has followed the evolution of group communication and social systems as result of new technologies. Her main focus today is the evolution of institutions as they leverage bottom-up economic innovations and social media practices to respond to environmental crises. She is particularly interest in the potential of new kinds of commons to bridge between the public and private sector, between markets and policy, between digital and physical, and between local and global. She was recently co-producer of the first massively multiplayer forecasting game, Superstruct.   Back to Top http://www.iftf.org/user/47
Paul Wolff is an architect and Professor Emeritus of Architecture from
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, where he taught Universal
Design and Environmental Psychology. He has published numerous
chapters and articles on creating therapeutic play settings, and
empathetic design. He has designed accessible residences, play
environments and a 24 unit fully accessible public housing complex for
seniors and people with disabilities (1993). Consultant and conference speaker on Universal Design and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Born in Hamburg, Germany, from where he fled in 1939. 
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Warren Wolf is President of the Board of The Humanist Institute and serves on the Board of The Institute for Humanist Studies. Retired from Owens Corning where he was serving as VP of Owens Corning Science and Technology and Chief Scientist, his career spanned 33 years as senior scientist and then technical management positions in research, engineering and environmental and health science areas with considerable involvement in manufacturing.  Since his retirement he has served as President of The American Ceramic Society, and serves on Advisory Boards at Virginia Tech, and The Ohio State University. He has consulted for The United States Department of Energy on energy efficiency and nuclear waste issues.. He was a US delegate to the International Commission on Glass (ICG) and served eight years. He chaired the ICG Technical Committee on the Biosolubility on Glass from its founding until completion of research work showing glass fibers should be not be listed among carcinogenic materials. Wolf has been honored as a distinguished alumnus of the College of Engineering at Ohio State and as a Fellow of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. He earned his Ph.D. in ceramic engineering from The Ohio State University and MBA from Xavier University. In 2006 Wolf received the Glass Industry’s Phoenix Award given globally to one individual each year for their achievements and contributions to the glass industry.   Back to Top  
Paul Wolff is a licensed architect and designer of 24-unit accessible housing complex in San Luis Obispo for elderly and disabled (1993). Consultant and conference speaker on universal design, accessible design, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Participant, Universal Design Education Project, strategies for teaching lifespan issues to future designers (1993-96). Jewish refugee from Germany in 1939.
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Beth David Synagogue
http://www.cbdslo.org/aboutus/goinggreen/
 

Victoria Zelin is Senior Vice President and Sustainability Practice Leader at Hudson Gain Corporation, a leadership solutions firm. She has spent the past 25 years providing executive recruitment, leadership development, training, organization change and outplacement to clients both large and small, across functions and industries.  At Hudson Gain she co-authored, Going Green? Don't Hire a Sustainability Chief Until You Read This Study! The Role of the Chief Sustainability Officer in Corporations,  Victoria speaks on leadership of the corporate sustainability function and contributes her time to helping professionals in transition to position themselves for the new green economy. Victoria has been a Vice President at Hudson Highland, a global staffing firm, and at Lee Hecht Harrison, a global leader in career transitions; a Director at CSC/Index, the reengineering consultancy, and in other human capital firms. In her early career, Victoria worked at Exxon and in museums and architectural preservation. She has an MBA from the Yale School of Management with a specialization in Organizational Behavior and a BA from Duke University in Cultural Anthropology. Victoria lives in Basking Ridge, NJ, with her husband, Jonathan Cloud, and her daughter, Ilana, a student at Rutgers University in Fine Arts.    Back to Top

Going Green: http://www.slideshare.net/RThorne/HudsonGain-Sustainability-Study-20081015